This Week in Drinks

The country's biggest wine and spirits distributor just admitted to years of retailer bribery

Southern Glazer's agreed to pay $12.5 million and adopt new internal controls in a non-prosecution deal with the DOJ and TTB, after former employees ran a scheme of cash payments, gift cards, and trips to California retailers between 2016 and 2024 in exchange for shelf placement. Five ex-employees still face separate criminal charges, though the company itself avoids prosecution. Southern Glazer's is one of the largest distributors bringing bottles into Florida, so nothing here changes what's on your shelf today — but it's a reminder that a handful of companies decide what gets prime placement long before you walk in the door. via VinePair

Champagne just had its earliest harvest ever — expect that to show up as scarcity, not a discount

Extreme heat pushed growers into picking as early as August 6 this year, the earliest start on record for the region, after spring frost had already wiped out an estimated 43% of potential production. French regulators granted a one-time exception allowing alcohol levels up to 15%, well above the usual 13% cap, just to account for how much sugar built up in the grapes. Producers say the smaller crop still has the makings of an exceptional vintage, but a smaller harvest at higher sugar levels usually means less wine to go around once it reaches market in a few years. If you buy vintage Champagne, treat 2026 as a year to watch for tighter allocations rather than bargains. via Phys.org

Florida's liquor license lottery closes September 30 — here's why that scarcity shapes your options

The state's annual drawing for new quota liquor licenses is open now, with just 63 licenses available across 30 counties this year and only one entry allowed per person or business per county. Florida caps most full liquor licenses by county population, which is exactly why a license can trade for more on the resale market than the store it's attached to, and why many grocery and drugstore chains sell only beer and wine instead of full liquor. There's nothing to act on here as a shopper, but it explains why full liquor stores are so much rarer than wine-and-beer aisles in a lot of Florida neighborhoods. via Boca Raton Tribune

A pop star just bought into a Champagne brand you've probably seen on a shelf

Christina Aguilera has taken a stake in Beau Joie, the metal-clad-bottle Champagne house, and will serve as its global creative director, fronting its lower-sugar "Bubble Better" line. Celebrity-backed drinks brands reliably see a short-term sales bump once the partnership gets press. Beau Joie is a small-production house, so if it's already on a shelf near you, expect it to move faster and possibly get harder to restock over the next few months. via BevNET

A $12 Grateful Dead Zinfandel just landed on shelves — grab it before it's gone

Gnarly Head's fifth annual collaboration with the Grateful Dead — an old-vine Lodi Zinfandel with a peel-off "Steal Your Face" label hiding artwork underneath — started shipping nationwide this month at a suggested $12, and it sells until it's gone rather than sticking around as a permanent SKU. It's an easy, low-cost pickup wherever your store carries Gnarly Head, not a bottle worth hunting for. If you see it, that's the moment to buy — reorders on a limited novelty release like this aren't guaranteed. via PR Newswire

Sports-drink-style vodka seltzers are selling faster than distributors can restock them

Stateside Brands' new Super Lyte — a non-carbonated vodka-and-ade RTD styled after classic sports drink flavors — has already topped 400,000 cases and $25 million in NielsenIQ-tracked sales since its spring launch, putting it on pace to clear a million cases in its debut year. It's rolled out mostly along the East Coast and Midwest so far, so it may not be on Florida shelves yet, but demand running this far ahead of supply usually means a wider push follows fast. At $19.99 for a variety 8-pack, it's priced like the RTDs already crowding your cooler section, not a premium play — worth asking your shop when it's landing rather than waiting to spot it. via Shanken News Daily

Tequila Ocho's newest terroir release is the first one built to actually reach Florida

Heaven Hill's Tequila Ocho added Rio Lerma to its Terroir Select series — a Plata ($50) and Reposado ($60), both made from agave grown in five fields along the river border between Jalisco and Michoacán. Unlike the first Terroir Select vintage, this one is going out globally rather than staying limited to a handful of markets, so it should actually show up on U.S. shelves instead of requiring a distillery connection. At those prices it's a step up from Ocho's core lineup, aimed at buyers who already like the brand and want to taste how a single growing region changes the tequila, not a casual purchase. via Heaven Hill Brands

A distillery just bottled the oldest whisky ever released — and none of it is for sale to you

The Balvenie unveiled an 88-year-old single malt distilled in 1931 and aged the entire time in one European oak sherry butt, bottled at 43.2% ABV as the anchor of a new 1931 Collection. Only 17 bottles exist, the distillery hasn't published a price, and most have already gone to private collectors — this one tops the previous record, an 85-year-old Glenlivet-distilled malt released in 2025. There's nothing to buy here, but it's a useful marker of how far the ultra-age whisky market keeps climbing, and a fun one to mention if a customer asks about the "world's oldest whisky" headlines. via Robb Report

A dealcoholized-only winery just landed growth funding — no/low is attracting real money now

Oceano Wines, a California producer that makes only single-vineyard alcohol-removed wine, closed a growth funding round led by Shifting Sands Capital to expand production and push further into retail, hospitality, and direct-to-consumer sales. The company didn't disclose the amount, but institutional capital going toward a brand built entirely around dealcoholized wine — not a side project from a conventional winery — signals investors expect the category to keep growing past novelty status. If your no/low section is still an afterthought, single-vineyard-focused brands like this are becoming a legitimate stocking decision rather than a trend bet. via BevNET

Trade talks with Canada collapsed — 50% tariffs on Canadian wine and spirits are now real

Negotiations broke down and the U.S. imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian goods, wine and spirits included, effective August 24. Crown Royal and Fireball — two of the best-selling Canadian spirits on Florida shelves, worth an estimated $2.4 billion and $1.45 billion at U.S. retail respectively — are squarely exposed, and Canadian wine imports face the same hit. Distributors can only absorb a tariff that size for so long, so bottles you buy on autopilot in this category are worth watching for price creep over the next few months rather than assuming today's shelf price holds. via Shanken News Daily

Wine has slipped behind spirits in total U.S. sales for the first time on record — and the priciest bottles are taking the biggest hit

Circana's latest 52-week data puts U.S. table wine dollar sales at roughly $12.4 billion, down 4.7%, while spirits sales are also sliding — off 5.1% in the first quarter, with the steepest drops concentrated at the top: bottles $50 to $99.99 fell 8.8%, and $100-and-up fell 9.3%. That's a buyer's market specifically for premium bottles right now, not everyday ones — if there's a splurge bottle you've been eyeing, this is a better moment to ask your shop for a deal on it than on the $15 stuff. via Beverage Industry

A well-known whiskey maker just released his first mezcal, and it's landing nationally

Chip Tate, the founder of Balcones Distillery and now Foley Family's master distiller of innovation, has released Penumbra, a mezcal made the traditional way — tahona-crushed, pit-roasted over local wood, and distilled over an open flame at a single palenque in Oaxaca. It already picked up a Double Gold and 95 points at the 2025 Tequila & Mezcal Challenge ahead of this national rollout, a stronger credential than most new agave labels carry at launch. At $45, it's priced to try rather than save for a special occasion, worth a look if your mezcal shelf has gotten predictable. via Fred Minnick

This year's grape harvest is arriving weeks early almost everywhere, which means the 2026 vintage will taste different

Extreme heat and drought have pushed picking dates earlier than usual across Champagne, Bordeaux, Napa, and beyond — Champagne is bringing in its earliest harvest on record, and some Santa Barbara vineyards started as early as June 30. Winemakers are split on what that means for quality: some worry about grapes that are sugar-ripe but not fully mature, others say early bud break simply made an early picking normal. It's too soon to know how the 2026 vintage will drink, but it's a year worth reading tasting notes on carefully before committing to futures or preorders rather than assuming business as usual. via Wine-Searcher

Diageo just cut nearly 2,000 jobs — here's what that means for the brands on your shelf

Diageo cut its global headcount by more than 6% as part of a three-year, $1 billion cost-reduction plan under new CEO Dave Lewis, with some teams losing 20-30% of staff. The portfolio behind those cuts runs from Johnnie Walker and Don Julio to Ketel One, Captain Morgan, and Casamigos — brands stocked on nearly every Florida shelf. Cost pressure this size usually shows up first as heavier discounting and promotion to protect volume, not as changes to what's in the bottle, so it's worth watching whether Diageo's mainstream lines start moving with deeper markdowns over the next few months. via VinePair

Only 54% of American adults still drink — and for the first time in 25 years, a majority call even moderate drinking unhealthy

Gallup's latest survey found the U.S. drinking rate holding at a record-low 54% for the second year running, while 51% of adults now say one or two drinks a day is bad for your health — a threshold Gallup has crossed only once before since it started asking in 2001. Republicans and independents have pulled back the most since 2023; Democrats barely moved. This doesn't mean total dollars spent on alcohol are falling — they aren't — but it does mean the buyer base is narrowing toward people who drink less often and spend more per bottle when they do, which is why premium and occasion-driven purchases keep outperforming everyday case sales. via Gallup

Two major Port houses just declared 2024 a Vintage year — plan on paying for it

Sogrape declared 2024 a Classic Vintage for both Sandeman and Porto Ferreira, the first Classic Vintage either brand has called this decade — a designation a house only uses in years it considers exceptional. The wines are described as concentrated and built for long aging, and they're due in the U.S. this fall through Sogrape's Evaton import arm. Vintage Port from a well-known house doesn't come around often; if you keep a cellar or buy holiday gifts in this category, it's worth asking your shop to flag these when they land rather than waiting to spot them on a shelf. via Wine Industry Advisor

The overall wine market is shrinking, but easy, familiar sparkling wine isn't

Impact Databank projects the total U.S. wine market to slip 3.5% in 2026, yet La Marca Prosecco was the second-fastest-growing wine brand in dollar sales this summer, up 13% over the four weeks through August 8, helped by a new single-serve format. It's a clean signal of where actual demand is right now: not fine wine broadly, but familiar, lower-commitment bottles people don't have to think hard about. If your usual go-to has crept up in price, this is a reasonable category to look for value and new formats in rather than trading down on quality. via Shanken News Daily

Treasury Wine just wrote down $394 million in U.S. assets — DAOU, Frank Family, and BV took the hit

Treasury Wine Estates, the company behind DAOU, Frank Family Vineyards, and Beaulieu Vineyard, flagged another big writedown tied to U.S. oversupply — on top of a writedown it already booked against the same business back in December. Part of the fix is deliberately shrinking future harvests in Napa and Sonoma by fallowing vineyards. These are real, widely stocked labels, and a producer this size cutting production on purpose is usually a two-part signal: aggressive pricing on what's in the market now, and tighter supply on these three names once the smaller harvests work through in a couple of years. via The Drinks Business

1800 Tequila's newest bottle costs $11,000 — and it's not really about the tequila

The brand's Colección Tequila series added Mono Laberinto Doble, a 50-piece run of extra añejo aged in new American oak and casks that previously held Amarone, housed in a nickel decanter designed by the late Mexican artist Pedro Friedeberg. At that price and that scarcity, this is a collector object priced for the design work, not something built for drinking. Worth knowing mostly as a marker of how far a mainstream tequila brand will now stretch upmarket — not something a typical buyer needs to chase. via The Spirits Business

Balcones' founder has a new mezcal, and unlike most buzzy agave launches, you can actually find it

Chip Tate, who built Balcones into one of Texas's best-known craft whiskey names before leaving the company, has a new project: Penumbra, a single-palenque espadín mezcal distilled in Oaxaca for Foley Family Wines & Spirits. It's bottled at 46% ABV and priced at $45, and it's rolling out nationally rather than launching as a tiny allocation. A credible distiller's name plus real national distribution at a normal price is a rarer combination than it should be in mezcal right now — worth putting on the list. via Fred Minnick

Beyoncé now owns SirDavis outright — LVMH is out

LVMH sold its stake in SirDavis, the American whisky Beyoncé launched with the luxury group in 2024, giving her sole control of the brand. The whisky itself hasn't changed — still distilled by MGP in Indiana from a 51% rye, 49% malted barley mash, then finished and bottled in Texas — but losing a distribution giant like LVMH is the kind of ownership shift that can affect how aggressively a brand gets pushed into new stores. If SirDavis is on your shelf now, it's worth watching whether availability holds steady as the brand rebuilds its distribution relationships on its own. via The Drinks Business

Bordeaux's wildfires missed the big vineyards — but the harvest timing still matters

Wildfires burned roughly 42,000 hectares in the Gironde and forced mass evacuations, but the major appellations — Médoc, Saint-Émilion, Pomerol — weren't directly hit, and growers are heading into an early harvest expecting minimal smoke taint. Smoke damage doesn't always show up until after fermentation, though, so the 2026 vintage won't really be gradeable until well after harvest wraps up in September. Not a reason to skip 2026 Bordeaux, but a reason to wait for actual reviews before buying futures on faith. via Wine Enthusiast

Champagne just capped the harvest at its second-lowest level this century

The Comité Champagne set this year's yield at 8,800 kg per hectare — about 250 million bottles, the tightest cap since the pandemic-shortened 2020 harvest and the fourth straight year of cuts, driven by frost, heat, and drought. Tighter supply out of Champagne now typically shows up as higher prices and thinner allocations two to three years out, once this fruit becomes finished wine. If there's a house you buy every holiday season, don't assume it stays the same price indefinitely. via Wine-Searcher

Silicon Valley Bank says wine's "rock bottom" is still a year or two away

SVB's 2026 wine industry report shows U.S. case volume down to 329 million in 2025 (from 410 million in 2019) and sales value down to $74.3 billion, with the bank's own analysts projecting the real bottom lands in 2027 or 2028. For buyers, the down market has mostly meant better deals and more aggressive discounting as wineries and retailers try to move inventory — that dynamic looks likely to continue for at least another year or two rather than snap back. via VinePair

Tequila's glut is real — agave prices crashed roughly 90% in three years

Agave that sold for around $1.60 a kilogram a few years ago is now going for about $0.10, the result of growers overplanting during the tequila boom; distillers are reportedly sitting on hundreds of millions of liters they can't move. For buyers, an oversupplied category usually shows up as promotional pricing on mainstream blanco and reposado, so this is a reasonable window to trade up a tier without paying a premium for scarcity that isn't really there. via VinePair

More Americans now use marijuana daily than drink alcohol daily

A federal substance-use survey found 21.4 million Americans use cannabis daily or near-daily versus 17.2 million who drink alcohol that often — the first time cannabis use has passed alcohol on a daily basis, with the shift sharpest among Gen Z. Alcohol is still used by far more people overall, so this isn't a five-alarm story, but it's one more data point behind the low/no-alcohol and smaller-format sections that keep expanding in stores — stocking a few credible options there is standard shelf planning now, not a trend bet. via Forbes

Canadian alcohol gets a 50% tariff on August 19 — if you drink Canadian whisky, this is your two-week warning

The White House announced a 50% tariff on Canadian goods including alcohol, effective August 19, after several provinces pulled American products from their shelves. Bottles already in the U.S. aren't taxed retroactively, but replacement stock will be, and retailers price off replacement cost. If Crown Royal, Canadian Club, or a favorite Canadian rye is your daily pour, buying ahead this month is the rational move — and watch for knock-on effects, since the broader trade fight touches tequila and bourbon supply chains too. via Park Street

American wine sales head below 300 million cases — and the shrinking shelf cuts both ways

Impact Databank projects U.S. wine volume down 3.5% this year, under 300 million cases for the first time in over 15 years — the fifth straight annual decline. For a buyer, a shrinking category means two things at once: the labels still growing (Josh, La Marca Prosecco, Decoy, Mionetto) will stay easy to find, while everything else becomes a deal opportunity as distributors clear slow stock. If you have no loyalty to a label, the discount bins are about to get interesting. via Shanken News Daily

California is tearing out vines — today's wine glut won't last forever

California is producing less wine than at any point in the last 25 years, and major growers are still removing vineyards — Beckstoffer alone plans to pull more than half its vines in Lake and Mendocino counties. The current market is a buyer's market, but supply corrections eventually become price corrections. If there's a California producer you love, this is a good year to buy deep while the category is still oversupplied. via Wine Industry Advisor

The cooler door is eating the liquor shelf

Control-state numbers through June tell a blunt story: traditional spirits down 2.3%, while ready-to-drink cocktails carry all the growth — Cutwater up over 400%, Surfside up 46%, High Noon still the volume king. Florida is not a control state, but the consumer trend is national. Expect your local store's cooler section to keep expanding, and expect the interesting news in cans, not just bottles, for the rest of the summer. via Shanken News Daily

Espolòn is quietly winning tequila — and there's a new Extra Añejo

In a tequila category growing under 2%, Campari's Espolòn grew 8.2% globally and is up 18.5% by volume in control states this year, helped by a new Extra Añejo expression and smaller formats. The market has decided Espolòn is the value play in agave, and the new Extra Añejo brings that reputation to the top shelf. Worth a look before the price finds its audience. via Shanken News Daily

What actually hit shelves this week

Four launches worth knowing from the last week of July: Old Forester's Triple Char bourbon (57.5% ABV, $64.99 per 375 mL, Kentucky-only for now), Bib & Tucker's first bottled-in-bond — an 8-year Tennessee high-rye at $64.99 rolling out nationally in September, Old Elk's three 10-year whiskeys at $69.99 nationwide, and Glenglassaugh 15 (a PX-sherry-matured Highland malt, around $114). The Old Elk trio is the one you can actually walk in and buy; the Old Forester is the one to ask a traveling friend about. via Global Drinks Intel